A smoky city street: An asthma patient’s nightmare

Remember the catchline of the film Anaconda — “If you cannot breathe, you cannot scream”? The dense forests of South America are oceans away. But here, in the din and bustle of chaotic Calcutta, some hapless patients often find themselves in the grip of an invisible anaconda, which suddenly coils around their chests and prevents them from breathing. Medically known as ‘asthma’, it victimises hundreds of people in the city and makes their lives miserable.

When asthma strikes, air gets trapped in the lungs and the victim struggles to breathe. The clutch of this mighty anaconda is so tight that the simple spontaneous act of breathing becomes a monumental task. Apart from being very distressing for onlookers, an asthma attack can be life-threatening for the victim as well.

To reach out to those hundreds of victims and their distressed relatives and help them breathe easier, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, the multispeciality health destination on the E.M. Bypass, is launching a dedicated support group. “Being an asthmatic for the past 15 years, I have come across many patients and realised the need to have a common platform for all of them,” says Piali Mukherjee, who has conceived the project.

An article published in The Telegraph on July 1 sparked immense interest among patients and she started getting a flurry of telephone calls. But goodwill alone is not enough to sustain a project of this magnitude. “The proposal in hand, I visited different organisations with my friend Neetu Mishra, who have been a strong ally. Most found the project very useful, but not commercially viable,” she recounts.

“I was upset at the setbacks, but the rock-solid support of my parents kept me going,” says Piali. Things took a brighter turn when the two girls approached Ashok Sen Gupta, respiratory medicine consultant at Apollo Gleneagles, who took the initiative to realise this dream.

“Launching this non-profit support group for hundreds of suffering patients gives us another avenue to prove our commitment to Calcutta,” says V. Satyanarayana Reddy, CEO, Apollo Gleneagles.

“Support groups provide valuable insight to the doctors and are very popular in the West. With the alarming rise in the number of asthma patients, this has become an absolute necessity,” feels Sengupta. Apart from providing immense psychological support, these groups increase awareness among patients on what kind of services are available to them, adds Shampa Mitra Pahari, consultant paediatrician at the same hospital, actively involved with the group.

Although asthma can be controlled well through modern medicine and lifestyle modification, patients often suffer needlessly for lack of critical inputs. “Baseless myths about steroids and panic about inhalers, reluctance to stick to the prescribed line of treatment, inclination to a miracle therapy all combine to come in the way of proper, systematic treatment,” laments Sengupta.

Discussions on topics suggested by asthmatics and their family members in the presence of specialists, organising camps in schools to identify asthmatic children, educating patients on self-management of the disease, awareness programmes, etc will be the principal activities of the group, according to project coordinator Sonali Ghosh.